May 30, 13:00:51 PDT> Alex: I guess it's my turn to take the hot seat

May 30, 13:01:04 PDT> Alex: I'm Alexandra Samuel

May 30, 13:01:14 PDT> Alex: and I've been working with the CompuMentor team

May 30, 13:01:32 PDT> Alex: along with the rest of Social Signal (http://www.socialsignal.com)

May 30, 13:01:46 PDT> Alex: to help shape the online community part of the NetSquared project

May 30, 13:01:59 PDT> Alex: so all of you who are on the NetSquared site for the remote conference

May 30, 13:02:03 PDT> Alex: have seen at least part of the picture

May 30, 13:02:36 PDT> Alex: We've had a lot of questions from folks about how the site was set up

May 30, 13:02:48 PDT> Alex: especially from other folks who are using Drupal, the content manageement system the site was built in

May 30, 13:03:04 PDT> Alex: so let me begin by just asking folks if they have any specific questions I can help answer

May 30, 13:04:10 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: and what are the objectives of this social signal?

May 30, 13:04:57 PDT> Alex: We work with different organizations, mostly nonprofits/government organizations, to help develop online communities

May 30, 13:05:17 PDT> Alex: Another project we worked on is telecenter.org

May 30, 13:05:40 PDT> Alex: a couple of folks from telecentre.org are at NetSquared -- Kate Raynes-Goldie is the community manager, and Partha Sarker is one of the lead bloggers

May 30, 13:06:32 PDT> Alex: We try to balance the tech challenges with an emphasis on communications & social architecture

May 30, 13:06:47 PDT> Alex: one thing I think a lot of Web 2.0 projects struggle with is the "if we build it, they will come" attitude

May 30, 13:06:56 PDT> vkm: what type of project/what is the focus of telecenter.org and how is it different from this one?

May 30, 13:07:16 PDT> Alex: telecentre.org is a project led by the International Development Research Centre of Canada

May 30, 13:07:23 PDT> Alex: with support from Microsoft & the Swiss government

May 30, 13:07:37 PDT> Alex: throughout the world -- and especially the developiong world --

May 30, 13:08:18 PDT> Alex: many people get access to technology (including not just the Net but also basic telephony and computing) through telecentres, which in the US are called "communtiy technology centers"

May 30, 13:08:30 PDT> Alex: these centres can be decent-sized nonprofits or little mom&pop internet cafes

May 30, 13:08:36 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: care2.com has succesfully built a sort of online community with social relevance

May 30, 13:09:08 PDT> Alex: and telecentre.org aims at helpign to connect all the different regional networks that support those local telecentres, in order to build global capacity

May 30, 13:09:27 PDT> Alex: just checking care2 now

May 30, 13:09:52 PDT> Alex: so Tuesday, what do you think works well about CAre2?

May 30, 13:10:18 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: i think its easy to navigate first of all

May 30, 13:10:50 PDT> Alex: I like the peer-based promotion system

May 30, 13:10:53 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: and it allows you to meet people with the same interests

May 30, 13:10:56 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: yes

May 30, 13:11:09 PDT> Alex: "note it to promote it" -- cute

May 30, 13:11:25 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: the only problem with care2 is that

May 30, 13:11:44 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: although people are interested to contribute to social change

May 30, 13:12:04 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: it doesnt have the infrastructure of a nonprofit

May 30, 13:12:16 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: therefore participation is limited.

May 30, 13:12:21 PDT> MJanofsky: Sorry about that....back after a computer issue!

May 30, 13:12:31 PDT> Seth Schneider: Alex: My org is considering Drupal/CiviCRM, as we move from flat HTML website to CMS/online community/CRM system. Can you share any quick thoughts on how Drupal has been for NetSquared?

May 30, 13:12:37 PDT> Alex: yep, it's hard to get online communities to work if they arent' supported by real-world infrastructure

May 30, 13:12:58 PDT> Alex: one thing I can suggest you read is the doc I wrote for telecentre.org on why we chose drupal for that project

May 30, 13:12:59 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: which I hope social signal could provide in the future =)

May 30, 13:13:02 PDT> Alex: it's online on drupal.org

May 30, 13:13:16 PDT> Alex: I'll get you the URL in a moment, Seth

May 30, 13:13:28 PDT> Seth Schneider: thanks -- i'll check that out!

May 30, 13:13:32 PDT> Alex: Basically, here's my take on the whole drupal thing

May 30, 13:13:55 PDT> Alex: when you're evaluating CMS-es these days, there's basically a usability-flexibility tradeoff

May 30, 13:14:20 PDT> Alex: if you are basically just looking for a CMS to replace static html on a traditional, web 1.0, flat-info kind of web site

May 30, 13:14:40 PDT> Alex: there are lots of cms tools out there that are easier to use, especially from an admin point of view

May 30, 13:14:56 PDT> Alex: and many of them now include basic blogging and basic rss feeds

May 30, 13:16:06 PDT> Alex: so if you're concerned to get a tool that is easy for your team to use and will cover the basics, drupal is probably not the most obvious choice

May 30, 13:16:06 PDT> Alex: the problem is that even if you are still basically working in a "web 1.0" model for your site

May 30, 13:16:27 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: Just saying hi, Alex -- I'm an "Otherwise Engaged" reader and it's been on my list to write you about Social Signal for a while now... (I'm Internet managing editor at Natural Resources Defense Council)

May 30, 13:16:27 PDT> Alex: that may change -- and probalby should change -- within a year or two

May 30, 13:16:27 PDT> Alex: <hi IAn!>

May 30, 13:17:32 PDT> Alex: so the big value of choosing a tool like drupal -- a more web 2.0 tool -- is that it gives you room to grow. And of course, if you're already planning to build a "web 2.0" site with features like participatory blogging, rss aggregation,

May 30, 13:17:32 PDT> Alex: social networking, wikis etcc, then a traditional CMS isn't going to cut it

May 30, 13:17:43 PDT> Alex: and Drupal gives you great flexibility and extensibility -- there are so many modules (plug-ins) that push its environment into new social web capacity

May 30, 13:17:54 PDT> MJanofsky: a

May 30, 13:17:58 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: useful advice, thanks...

May 30, 13:18:07 PDT> Alex: but you really need to be prepared to spend time and $$ thinking about the different use cases and users

May 30, 13:18:32 PDT> vkm: i work at a non-profit that has three websites in different states of 'drupalization'.

May 30, 13:18:40 PDT> Alex: and to approach the challenge of "theming" your site (building a visual skin) not just in terms of how it looks to users, but also how it looks to different administrators

May 30, 13:18:40 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: we've been looking at Drupal as possible interim before we can get into a full-fledged CMS environment...

May 30, 13:18:47 PDT> Alex: vkm, how has your experience been

May 30, 13:19:00 PDT> Alex: Ian, I'm surprised you dont' see Drupal as a full-fledged CMS

May 30, 13:19:29 PDT> vkm: our newest site was built in drupal. we hired consultants to build it out for us, and they're in the process of working out bugs.

May 30, 13:19:30 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: It's not that we don't -- we're still in the investigation stage.

May 30, 13:19:51 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: and NRDC's requirements are pretty complex...

May 30, 13:20:10 PDT> Alex: vkm, can you send us an URL for one of your drupal sites?or are they not up yet?

May 30, 13:20:13 PDT> vkm: part of the contract was that they would also develop a cms for us based within drupal to make it easier for our staff (a lot of tech-phobic people) to add/edit their content

May 30, 13:20:39 PDT> vkm: this is our newest site: http://www.ncdemocracy.org/

May 30, 13:21:45 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: I think we need something like an enterprise backbone -- iupload, maybe? Not sure yet -- to enable collaboration and outward-facing sites.

May 30, 13:22:46 PDT> Alex: vkm, full marks for not having a site that looks too drupally

May 30, 13:22:46 PDT> vkm: we're hoping to use the cms that they're building for us to eventually leverage against our older sites so we can get them all working on the same platform

May 30, 13:22:57 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: vkm -- really nice!

May 30, 13:22:57 PDT> Alex: btw my doc re: choosing drupal for telecentre.org is online at http://www.alexandrasamuel.com/telecentre-platform/

May 30, 13:22:57 PDT> vkm: the other site that's currently part-html and part-drupal is http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/

May 30, 13:22:57 PDT> MJanofsky: vkm, Just wanted to comment on your _very_ nice site!

May 30, 13:22:57 PDT> Seth Schneider: thanks for URL and all your insightful comments.

May 30, 13:23:08 PDT> Alex: One thing that's interesting about the National Center for the Promotion of Democracy site is that it has both blogs and forums

May 30, 13:23:08 PDT> Alex: that was something we debated a lot on netsquared

May 30, 13:23:08 PDT> vkm: the discover nikkei website so far only is set up in drupal within the community forum section - http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/forum/

May 30, 13:23:08 PDT> Alex: we decided it would be too confusing to have both on one site

May 30, 13:23:10 PDT> Alex: so we used blogs on netsquared

May 30, 13:23:22 PDT> Alex: and forums on net2learn (http://learn.netsquared.org)

May 30, 13:23:48 PDT> vkm: well, we decided that they would serve different purposes. unfortunately, we haven't really been able to get much promotion of the site yet, so there hasn't been much activity

May 30, 13:24:16 PDT> Alex: this conversation illustrates one of the most compelling reasons to use drupal: it's got a lot of momentum in the nonprofit sector

May 30, 13:24:34 PDT> Peter Rees: Alex - drupal: it's got a lot of momentum in the nonprofit sector

May 30, 13:24:36 PDT> Alex: so there are lots of nonprofits who are extending the platform in ways that will be useful for new nonprofits who start using drupal

May 30, 13:24:40 PDT> Peter Rees: which part?

May 30, 13:25:07 PDT> Alex: and there's a lot of expertise out there on how to use it effectively for community-driven organizations

May 30, 13:25:26 PDT> vkm: the thought was that we would use the blogs more as an opportunity for students and teachers to generate discussions, or to have blogs where more than one individual could participate to, but it would still be a limited to an invited group

May 30, 13:25:40 PDT> Alex: ah, ok

May 30, 13:25:47 PDT> Alex: so are you using organic groups?

May 30, 13:26:00 PDT> vkm: we've been really fortunate to have a staff member who really researched and found drupal and has become quite proficient

May 30, 13:26:16 PDT> Alex: (organic groups is a module that lets you set up a drupal site so there are specific teams/workign groups responsible for different content areas within a site)

May 30, 13:26:20 PDT> vkm: yes, the plan is to use organic groups. unfortunately, we haven't quite gotten that part built out yet

May 30, 13:26:21 PDT> Alex: we used organic groups to set up net2learn

May 30, 13:26:43 PDT> Alex: well, ping me if we can be helpful -- we've spent a lot of time with it while working on net2learn

May 30, 13:26:58 PDT> MJanofsky: Alex-can you give us a brief idea of what organic groups is?

May 30, 13:26:58 PDT> vkm: btw...thanks for all the compliments on the National Center website. i'll have to pass those along to the designers. =)

May 30, 13:27:25 PDT> Alex: MJ, happy to explain organic groups

May 30, 13:27:45 PDT> Alex: but it requires me to back up a bit and explain one of the core -- and powerful -- concepts in drupal, which is to have very fine-grained user permissions

May 30, 13:28:08 PDT> vkm: thanks for the offer of help. btw...how do i 'ping' you?

May 30, 13:28:14 PDT> Alex: you can create multliple types of users in drupal, and give each type of user a different set of permissions with respect to each function or feature on the site

May 30, 13:28:18 PDT> Alex: I'm alex@socialsignal.com

May 30, 13:28:50 PDT> Alex: So with drupal's built-in permissions system, you could for example say that only people who are registered users of the site can create their own blog posts, but anyone can read blog posts

May 30, 13:29:19 PDT> Alex: or you could set up a special kind of feature on the site, like Net2Ask, and say that anyone can create a Net2Ask question, even if they aren't registered

May 30, 13:29:31 PDT> Alex: without giving those folks permission to blog unless they register

May 30, 13:29:41 PDT> Alex: so that is one of the great built-in features of drupal

May 30, 13:30:24 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: Alex: When you can change gears, what about drupal vs joomla/mambo?

May 30, 13:30:26 PDT> Alex: the limitation of this system is that while you can have different types of users, and different permissions for each type of content on the site (blog permissions separate from forum permissions, separate from net2ask permisions, for example)

May 30, 13:30:30 PDT> MJanofsky: So, to sum it up, drupal's permissions are extremely flexible for anyone's needs.

May 30, 13:30:34 PDT> Alex: right.

May 30, 13:31:18 PDT> Alex: (thanks!)

May 30, 13:31:18 PDT> Alex: But if you want to give different permissions for specific topics, you're stuck.

May 30, 13:31:40 PDT> Alex: On Net2Learn, we wanted to have different topic areas -- there's one for online community management, one for rss, one for podcasting, etc

May 30, 13:31:47 PDT> Alex: and we wanted people to be able to build teams to work on specific topics, without getting editing privileges on everybody else's topic

May 30, 13:32:00 PDT> Alex: organic groups lets us do that

May 30, 13:32:19 PDT> Alex: each topic is its own "group" with permissions that apply just to people who are members of that group

May 30, 13:32:20 PDT> MJanofsky: so Drupal's permissions settings presented a problem for different things of the same "type" (i.e. topics, posts, etc...)

May 30, 13:32:31 PDT> Alex: exactly

May 30, 13:33:13 PDT> Alex: organic groups is one of the most crucial modules in extending drupal's functionality

May 30, 13:33:29 PDT> Alex: b/c there are so many organizations who want to chunk up their web sites, and give different permissions for people involved in different parts of the site

May 30, 13:33:43 PDT> Alex: is that helpful?

May 30, 13:34:11 PDT> Seth Schneider: very helpful!

May 30, 13:34:24 PDT> Alex: the other drupal module I'm obsessed with is aggregator2

May 30, 13:34:48 PDT> MJanofsky: Ian asked if you could talk about the difference between Drupal & Joomla/Mambo

May 30, 13:34:48 PDT> Alex: I just wrote a love letter to aggregator2 on worldchanging, a few weeks ago

May 30, 13:34:48 PDT> Alex: ah, Joomla/Mambo

May 30, 13:34:53 PDT> Alex: I think they are addressed in the doc for telecentre

May 30, 13:35:02 PDT> Alex: I haven't actually revisited Joomla since that time

May 30, 13:35:17 PDT> Alex: at the time we were picking a cms for telecentre they were just in the middle of the changeover

May 30, 13:35:28 PDT> Alex: and we were concerend partly about the stability of the dev path

May 30, 13:35:34 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: I'll check out that WC post -- I'm obsessing over anything with the word "aggregation" in it these days...

May 30, 13:35:45 PDT> Alex: but also at the time, the web 2 kinds of functions -- esp aggregation as I recall -- just weren't there

May 30, 13:35:51 PDT> Alex: but I hear good things about Joomla these days

May 30, 13:36:10 PDT> Alex: however with all these open source tools, the size of the community is just so crucial for the software's success

May 30, 13:36:28 PDT> Alex: ah, Ian, now I see why you read my blog ;)

May 30, 13:36:35 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: very easy to use, looks like to me; and designs are less cookie-cutter than most drupal sites tend to be...

May 30, 13:36:38 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: yep.

May 30, 13:36:57 PDT> Alex: on the cookie-cutter issue

May 30, 13:36:57 PDT> vkm: is the aggregator2 a content aggregator for feeds? our tech guy set some up in drupal for our Discover Nikkei website: http://www.discovernikkei.org/forum/aggregator/sources

May 30, 13:37:09 PDT> Alex: let me first give props to the people behind the amazing look of NetSquared

May 30, 13:37:16 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: jst a sidetrack, this gabbly chat should have been perfect if only you could maximize the window!

May 30, 13:37:21 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: yes, major woot

May 30, 13:37:34 PDT> Alex: re: aggregator2, basically it kicks the butt of drupal's built-in aggregator

May 30, 13:37:34 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: to netsquared look&feel

May 30, 13:37:47 PDT> Alex: so vkm, you almost certainly want to upgrade

May 30, 13:37:58 PDT> MJanofsky: (It seems as if Net2 has evolved A LOT since I first heard about it on TechSoup a while back)

May 30, 13:38:03 PDT> Alex: re: gabbly, tuesday, you can resize if you reload teh window by going to http://gabbly.com/netsquared.org/remote

May 30, 13:38:14 PDT> Alex: re: Net2 L&F...

May 30, 13:38:21 PDT> vkm: i'll let our tech guy know. where would he get it from?

May 30, 13:38:25 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: thanks alex

May 30, 13:38:35 PDT> Alex: the design is by Veerle Pieters, who is now the queen of CSS and one of the hottest designers in Belgium

May 30, 13:38:56 PDT> Alex: her CSS was drupalized by Courtney Miller of floatleft, which does a lot of work with nonprofits

May 30, 13:39:16 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: that's an instant copy/paste into notes for me, thanks Alex

May 30, 13:39:20 PDT> Alex: Courtney knows a crazy amount about drupal theming and made the site do all sorts of cool things we werne't sure we'd be able to get it to do

May 30, 13:39:35 PDT> Alex: ok, nobody email Courtney until she agrees to work on our next theming project

May 30, 13:40:10 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: hehe... "hands off my developer!"

May 30, 13:40:20 PDT> Alex: aggregator2 is downloadable from drupal.org

May 30, 13:40:29 PDT> Alex: just google it (all one word, aggregator2)

May 30, 13:40:56 PDT> vkm: thanks!

May 30, 13:41:06 PDT> tuesday gutz: hehehe courtney is off limits

May 30, 13:41:07 PDT> Alex: another fabu member of the Net2 team is Khalid Baheyeldin of 2bits.com

May 30, 13:41:14 PDT> Alex: he did the custom programming for the site

May 30, 13:41:29 PDT> Alex: and his next drupal project was just selected as one of google's "summer of code" winners

May 30, 13:41:48 PDT> Alex: the site has been hosted -- and massively supported -- by Bryght

May 30, 13:42:01 PDT> Alex: they are one of the major poles in the drupal world

May 30, 13:42:15 PDT> Alex: and among their team, know more about drupal than you'll find almost anywhere

May 30, 13:42:48 PDT> Alex: for any of you trying to get your heads around drupal, Bryght's documentation is probably one of the best places to start

May 30, 13:42:49 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: it's really competitive, finding web2.0-savvy developers.

May 30, 13:42:57 PDT> Alex: yes

May 30, 13:43:08 PDT> Alex: but I think it's important to mentally separate 3 kinds of people:

May 30, 13:43:13 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: I am desperate for a "mashup enabler"

May 30, 13:43:23 PDT> Alex: 1- the designers (visual magic-makers)

May 30, 13:43:34 PDT> Alex: 2- the coders (functionality enablers/tweakers)

May 30, 13:44:09 PDT> Alex: 3- the architects (people who can help you figure out what you can accomplish with your site, which audiences you need to engage, and what features are going to make them part of your community)

May 30, 13:44:10 PDT> Eric: there is also a new drupal book "Drupal: Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals, and Community Websites"

May 30, 13:44:19 PDT> Alex: ah! finally

May 30, 13:44:37 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: ooo -- sounds good!

May 30, 13:44:44 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: is it available in amazon?

May 30, 13:45:06 PDT> Eric: yep, also in electronic format too.

May 30, 13:45:07 PDT> Alex: There's also a recent book out on "building online communiteis with drupal, wordpress and....I forget the 3rd tool"

May 30, 13:45:27 PDT> Alex: but it doesn't really cover the issue of what kinds of features to choose & why, or how to use the tools effectivley

May 30, 13:45:31 PDT> Alex: it's more a technical how-to

May 30, 13:46:10 PDT> Alex: we're heading into our last quarter,here, so I'm wondering if other folks have some drupal wizardry to contribute

May 30, 13:46:15 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: alex: good classifications, but I tend to think you really need people who perhaps have one chief area of talent/expertise but are at least very, very smart about thinking through the other two as well.

May 30, 13:46:22 PDT> Alex: or other ideas or questions about online community-building

May 30, 13:46:46 PDT> vkm: i'm interested in finding out how you and others have encouraged participation

May 30, 13:47:08 PDT> Alex: re: Ian's point, in my experience when people look for that combo they end up getting someone who is really only strong in one of the 3, and then failing to adequaately resource the other 2 needed areas of expertise

May 30, 13:47:14 PDT> Alex: ah, encouraging participation

May 30, 13:47:20 PDT> Alex: so, a few things

May 30, 13:47:31 PDT> Alex: 1 -- don't expect everyone to come to you

May 30, 13:47:49 PDT> Alex: using tags is really crucial in building a community that lets people contribute content from their own blogs & photos

May 30, 13:48:04 PDT> Alex: eg on NetSquared we've used the tag "net2" to pull in content from other blogs and from flickr

May 30, 13:48:26 PDT> Eric: drupal wizardry: do not be afraid to ask the drupal community for help! It is one of the most helpful communities I have ever peppered with questions :)

May 30, 13:48:29 PDT> Alex: have other folks here caught the tagging bug?

May 30, 13:48:40 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: "net2" tag use = spectacularly successful

May 30, 13:48:56 PDT> vkm: sorry. can you explain what a 'tag' is, and how to use it?

May 30, 13:49:04 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: We're planning on it.

May 30, 13:49:14 PDT> Alex: sure

May 30, 13:49:19 PDT> Alex: a tag is basically just a keyword

May 30, 13:49:42 PDT> Alex: that refers to a particular topic

May 30, 13:50:21 PDT> Alex: sites like del.icio.us, flickr and technorati all use user-generated tags to categorize content like blog posts, bookmarks and photos

May 30, 13:50:33 PDT> Alex: I have an intro to tagging on my blog -- see http://www.alexandrasamuel.com/?p=115

May 30, 13:50:35 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: soon rolling out: staff use of del.icio.us that we plan to scale eventually to enterprise-level...

May 30, 13:50:44 PDT> Peter Rees: on tagging - is there a protocol to manage various instances social enterprise , social_enterprise, vs socialenterprise??

May 30, 13:50:56 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: We're aggregating staff-submitted links into a group linkblog

May 30, 13:50:57 PDT> Alex: awesome! yes, tagging is a great tool for faciliating collaboration -- as with net2 and nptech

May 30, 13:51:13 PDT> Alex: they key is to choose a unique tag that isn't being used for anything else

May 30, 13:51:50 PDT> Alex: and let your community know that they should use that tag whenever they write a relevant blog post, store a bookmark (using a service like http://del.icio.us) or post a photo (by using a site like http://www.flickr.com)

May 30, 13:52:10 PDT> Alex: then you can use an aggregation tool like drupal's aggregator2 to round up all the content with that tag

May 30, 13:52:33 PDT> Alex: so even if 100 different people are writing about you on 100 different blogs, you can make all their posts about you show up on one page

May 30, 13:52:54 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: wow this is cool

May 30, 13:53:03 PDT> Alex: Peter, re: your question about multiple overlapping tags

May 30, 13:53:24 PDT> Alex: my view is that if you are searching or aggregating, you should search on all variants

May 30, 13:53:43 PDT> Alex: but if you are working with a specific community to get them to use a specific tag, you should have them all use the same tag

May 30, 13:53:53 PDT> Alex: and it should work as all one word, all lower case

May 30, 13:54:13 PDT> Alex: because as soon as you get into underscores and hyphens, people get confused

May 30, 13:54:56 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: ... and within our look/feel, additional info about staffer who posted will be woven in -- thumbnail photo, name, location, job title, link to bio/profile. Part of trying to humanize what's always been put forward as a monolithic institution.

May 30, 13:55:02 PDT> Alex: if you visit the techtips page on Social Signal (www.socialsignal.com/techtips) you'll find some advice about how to choose tags on a page called "Tag your way to del.icio.us domination"

May 30, 13:56:09 PDT> vkm: thanks! this is very helpful.

May 30, 13:56:09 PDT> Alex: What Ian's talking about is an example of how tagging can work nicely as a form of social networking

May 30, 13:56:42 PDT> Peter Rees: TY

May 30, 13:56:42 PDT> Alex: if you check out 43things.com (the first tag-based site I was obsessed with) you'll see how tags can help people find other people who share similar interests

May 30, 13:58:09 PDT> Alex: Our next speaker is now online, so I want to wrap up soon

May 30, 13:58:09 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: Alex: any examples of staff blog policies you can point to that might help a frightened policy-wonk institution step into conversational media?

May 30, 13:58:09 PDT> Tuesday Gutz: Thanks for all the tips Alex

May 30, 13:58:09 PDT> Alex: ah, staff blog policies

May 30, 13:58:09 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: oh okay, for another conversation ;-)

May 30, 13:58:28 PDT> Alex: it's funny, we've been meaning to gather those together

May 30, 13:58:31 PDT> Liz Lawley: Robert Scoble's book Naked Conversations is a good starting point for worried execs

May 30, 13:58:31 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: yes, love that book.

May 30, 13:58:45 PDT> Alex: Ian, if you're game, could you go to http://www.netsquared.org/next-actions and suggest creating a collection of staff blogging policies as a next step

May 30, 13:58:57 PDT> Liz Lawley: a quick google search shows quite a few roundups of blogging policies, but not directed at non-profits.

May 30, 13:58:57 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: of course, worried execs want the one-page summary, don't want to read the book that will change their perspective.

May 30, 13:58:59 PDT> Alex: frankly my favorite way to get organizations on board with in-house blogging is to take them to Technorati and show them what people are already sayign about them

May 30, 13:59:04 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: Alex: I'll take you up on that.

May 30, 13:59:15 PDT> Alex: and then basically say, "ok, this conversation is happening with you or without you. Do you want to be part of it?"

May 30, 13:59:30 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: Hi Liz -- think I saw you speak at SXSWi?

May 30, 13:59:39 PDT> gillo: Ian, have you seen the one BBC sent to their employees?

May 30, 13:59:41 PDT> smokinggoat: Yes, that's an incredible tool Alex - but I think showing them the Technorati feeds is helpful, because if you just point htem to it - it's confusing and overwhelming....

May 30, 13:59:50 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: gillo: no, love to see it.

May 30, 14:00:06 PDT> Liz Lawley: Yes, I was on a couple of SXSW panels. Some I'm happier about admitting to than others. :)

May 30, 14:00:22 PDT> Alex: we usually do it live in front of their staff

May 30, 14:00:27 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: ha! no fears, it was great to hear you.

May 30, 14:00:43 PDT> Alex: great talking with all of you

May 30, 14:00:43 PDT> Alex: thanks for joining in!

May 30, 14:00:43 PDT> Seth Schneider: Thanks for sharing your knowledge, Alex!

May 30, 14:00:58 PDT> Alex: I'm alex@socialsignal.com if anyone has follow up questions

May 30, 14:01:00 PDT> Ian Wilker, NRDC: Thanks Alex

May 30, 14:01:10 PDT> vkm: thanks!

May 30, 14:01:19 PDT> gabber373: Great chat Alex!